Dissension Grows Inside Anonymous Because of Political Propaganda

[baziroll]

Political tensions relating to the US presidential race are creating internal turmoil inside the Anonymous hacker collective, muddling waters even more in a group that's known for its lack of leadership and a common goal.

The most recent problems sparked last December, when AnonHQ, a common source for Anonymous-sanctioned stories, published an article named "Ten Reasons That Will Convince You That Bernie Sanders Deserves Your Vote."

AnonHQ is by no means the official news portal of the Anonymous group, just like @YourAnonNews is not the group's official Twitter account, but they do have a big voice thanks to their large following.
"AnonHQ publicly criticized and pounded with DDoS attacks"

Almost immediately as the Sanders article was published, almost all Anonymous small and large divisions spoke out against the idea of "Anonymous supporting Sanders." A HackRead report from December has a collection of the tweets.

In a group that prides itself on being a decentralized unit with no leadership, you can imagine the reaction.

The site immediately started seeing DDoS attacks, carried out by other Anons and hacktivists. A few of the attacks lasted for a day, continued through the following months, and the most recent took place today.

    #TangoDown: https://t.co/gJYfbXtS98 #LulzSecReborn pic.twitter.com/wL7u20jPjg — The Lulz Boat (@LulzSecRB) April 27, 2016

"The hypocrisy of Anonymous"

Anonymous always consisted of many smaller hacking units, and this showed many times in the past. Before the US presidential nominations race got so heated, the group's hypocrisy showed after the ISIS attacks on the Charlie Hebdo headquarters, and the ones in Paris on November 13.

While some Anonymous groups were busy hunting and unmasking ISIS militants, other were busy carrying the ISIS propaganda flag. AnonGhost, one of Anonymous' former divisions, most recently joined forces with official ISIS hacking groups, forming the UCC hacking crew, known as the United Cyber Caliphate, which ISIS now considers its official cyber division.

Even in terms of US politics, the group has been quite at odds. Anonymous has launched attacks on all candidates except Sanders. There have been multiple warnings, threats, and attacks on Trump, Cruz, and more recently Hillary Clinton. Searching for Anonymous attacks on Sanders, you get pages and pages of Anonymous+Sanders=Love.
"Have Anonymous' ranks been corrupted?"

Since anyone can join Anonymous and there's no vetting process involved, some might reach the conclusion of a secret propaganda campaign that's leveraging the Anonymous brand.

Anonymous members are beginning to notice and are starting to react. In a statement released at the start of February, the group bluntly calls out what others have only speculated.

"It has come to our attention that government agents are acting as Anonymous impostors, and that fake anon’s are using the name of Anonymous to profit financially, spreading political propaganda, favor political parties, using the Anonymous name as their means for revenge attacks on individuals and to create false Anonymous operations," the Anon Intel Group wrote on their site. Other groups also joined their campaign.

Last month, when GhostShell, a former Anonymous Romania member, revealed his true identity, he spoke about how he saw Anonymous. "Entrapment is the word of the day … it’s gotten to a point where Anonymous is synonymous with the FBI and other agencies both stateside and abroad," GhostShell said.
"Anon Intel Group, Anonymous Denmark repudiate AnonHQ"

Nevertheless, as more and more videos pop up on YouTube and Facebook with Anonymous attacking political candidates left and right, others are also beginning to take notice of something weird happening with the group, and especially with its mouthpiece, AnonHQ.

In a Facebook post published last Sunday, the Danish division of Anonymous followed the Anon Intel Group and has publicly disavowed AnonHQ altogether, along with any idea that Anonymous might be supporting any political candidate.

For the foreseeable future, it may be best not to take any political advice from online hacktivists, and not base any conversations on the details you discover in their videos. Anonymous may not be the perfect structure, but its open structure can also be a weakness, especially when it comes to propaganda and opinion shaping.
source

[dinosaur07]

Political tensions relating to the US presidential race are creating internal turmoil inside the Anonymous hacker collective, muddling waters even more in a group that's known for its lack of leadership and a common goal.

The most recent problems sparked last December, when AnonHQ, a common source for Anonymous-sanctioned stories, published an article named "Ten Reasons That Will Convince You That Bernie Sanders Deserves Your Vote."

AnonHQ is by no means the official news portal of the Anonymous group, just like @YourAnonNews is not the group's official Twitter account, but they do have a big voice thanks to their large following.
"AnonHQ publicly criticized and pounded with DDoS attacks"

Almost immediately as the Sanders article was published, almost all Anonymous small and large divisions spoke out against the idea of "Anonymous supporting Sanders." A HackRead report from December has a collection of the tweets.

In a group that prides itself on being a decentralized unit with no leadership, you can imagine the reaction.

The site immediately started seeing DDoS attacks, carried out by other Anons and hacktivists. A few of the attacks lasted for a day, continued through the following months, and the most recent took place today.

    #TangoDown: https://t.co/gJYfbXtS98 #LulzSecReborn pic.twitter.com/wL7u20jPjg — The Lulz Boat (@LulzSecRB) April 27, 2016

"The hypocrisy of Anonymous"

Anonymous always consisted of many smaller hacking units, and this showed many times in the past. Before the US presidential nominations race got so heated, the group's hypocrisy showed after the ISIS attacks on the Charlie Hebdo headquarters, and the ones in Paris on November 13.

While some Anonymous groups were busy hunting and unmasking ISIS militants, other were busy carrying the ISIS propaganda flag. AnonGhost, one of Anonymous' former divisions, most recently joined forces with official ISIS hacking groups, forming the UCC hacking crew, known as the United Cyber Caliphate, which ISIS now considers its official cyber division.

Even in terms of US politics, the group has been quite at odds. Anonymous has launched attacks on all candidates except Sanders. There have been multiple warnings, threats, and attacks on Trump, Cruz, and more recently Hillary Clinton. Searching for Anonymous attacks on Sanders, you get pages and pages of Anonymous+Sanders=Love.
"Have Anonymous' ranks been corrupted?"

Since anyone can join Anonymous and there's no vetting process involved, some might reach the conclusion of a secret propaganda campaign that's leveraging the Anonymous brand.

Anonymous members are beginning to notice and are starting to react. In a statement released at the start of February, the group bluntly calls out what others have only speculated.

"It has come to our attention that government agents are acting as Anonymous impostors, and that fake anon’s are using the name of Anonymous to profit financially, spreading political propaganda, favor political parties, using the Anonymous name as their means for revenge attacks on individuals and to create false Anonymous operations," the Anon Intel Group wrote on their site. Other groups also joined their campaign.

Last month, when GhostShell, a former Anonymous Romania member, revealed his true identity, he spoke about how he saw Anonymous. "Entrapment is the word of the day … it’s gotten to a point where Anonymous is synonymous with the FBI and other agencies both stateside and abroad," GhostShell said.
"Anon Intel Group, Anonymous Denmark repudiate AnonHQ"

Nevertheless, as more and more videos pop up on YouTube and Facebook with Anonymous attacking political candidates left and right, others are also beginning to take notice of something weird happening with the group, and especially with its mouthpiece, AnonHQ.

In a Facebook post published last Sunday, the Danish division of Anonymous followed the Anon Intel Group and has publicly disavowed AnonHQ altogether, along with any idea that Anonymous might be supporting any political candidate.

For the foreseeable future, it may be best not to take any political advice from online hacktivists, and not base any conversations on the details you discover in their videos. Anonymous may not be the perfect structure, but its open structure can also be a weakness, especially when it comes to propaganda and opinion shaping.
source

April's fools day was just a couple of weeks ago.